Chapter 2

The sun is setting, the birds chirping outside waking up Chaeyoung from her sleep. The best thing about this place is that you don't have to turn on your alarm because nature will wake you eventually.

While yawning across the hallway, Chaeyoung goes to the dining room.

"Good morning," She greets everyone.

"Good morning, Chaeyoung-ssi" Mina greets back.

Chaeyoung sits at the dining table, still yawning again and again while rubbing her eyes as well. Chaeyoung sees the other two in a tracksuit.

"You guys finished yoga?"

Mina nods while sipping her coffee.

"Mina-ssi, let me tell you. You came here to rest, don't tire yourself with yoga, don't follow her, she's a yoga freak, I bet she made you do weird and hard poses. Gosh, I would never join her yoga."

"Ya ya ya! Who are you talking behind my back!" Jihyo shouts from the kitchen. "You have a weak body. That's why yoga and you don't match!" She adds.

"Ya! I have a great body. I am quite muscular as well without Yoga, Ya!" Chaeyoung stands up and points at her being sulky.

Mina laughs at herself, looking at these two behaviors.

Chaeyoung looks at her laugh. It's nice to see her laugh. Chaeyoung still remembers the face when she found Mina sidetrack yesterday. She's trembling and afraid, but right now,

"She's beautiful," said Chaeyoung in her heart.

Chaeyoung joined her laugh, realizing that sometimes the two acted like a kid to each other.

"How long have you known Jihyo-ssi?" Mina asked Chaeyoung. 

"Hmm, Jihyo is my elementary school friend. We met at grade 4, so that would be" Chaeyoung is calculating, "20 years? Whoa, really, I've known you that long, Park Jihyo!"

"Yeah, time flies, right?" Jihyo shouts from the kitchen.

"Yeah, 20 years then," she said to Mina

"Wow, that's friendship."

"We haven't seen each other that much since I went abroad from middle school, but we kept contacting each other. To be honest, she's my only friend here. The moment I knew she moved to Cheongsando 4 years ago, I kept coming back here and praising her that she made a good decision living here. It's just breathtaking."

"I just love how quiet the place is," Mina said.

"It's a good and perfect place to rest."

"Here, here, let's eat!" Jihyo comes with the food. Today she cooked egg rolls and doenjang jjigae. She served it with rice and banchan.

"Thanks for the food," Both said at the same time.

Mina sips the soup first. Jihyo signals Chaeyoung to shoot the questions.

Chaeyoung remembers.

"Do you have any plans today Mina-ssi?"

Mina thinks it first, then she shook her head, saying no.

"Do you wanna go to slow paths? It's a must-place when you're here. We could take long and slow walks there until we reached Beombawi. It's tiring but it's the easiest trail here. You should go with me if you don't have any plans."

"Nice, Mina-ssi. I think you should go with Chaeyoung. She visited the islands too many times. She knows every place here."

Mina nods, "Okay then."

"Alright, guess we won't be here for lunch, Jihyo-ya."

"Okay, I'll cook dinner then."

Chaeyoung and Mina then get ready after breakfast. They ate breakfast at 9 and finally off from Soothing Hill at 10.30. It took only 30 minutes to get there. Before they started their trekking road, Chaeyoung bought kimbap and water. The trekking would take an hour and a half to reach Beombawi. 

"If you come here in spring, they have a slow walk festival here. You can walk along the way with the blooming flowers beside you. People are taking their time exploring the beauty of this island. You will always see a snail shape here because it symbolizes the city, a slow city. This place is also beautiful in any season, though."

Mina is walking while taking a look at her surroundings. "Yeah, indeed."

"So what do you do, Mina-ssi, back in the city?"

"Me? I am a programmer. I made apps, sorta things like that."

Though Chaeyoung already knows about it, she acts surprised. "You? Programmer? As if, a computer programmer?"

"Yeah"

"Wow, wow. I thought you'd be a florist or own a cafe or something."

Mina laughs, "I got that reaction a lot when people knew what I did."

"I mean, I am sorry for being so shallow, but you don't look like someone who's sitting behind the computer did coding or something, seriously," Chaeyoung said.

"Actually, most of my programmers don't look like that at all, like the one you saw on the TV, you know all the stereotypes."

"I believe that now."

They are talking while slowly walking the path

"So, what did you build, what apps?"

"Ehm, I built an application called DD. It's on the Playstore and Apple Store."

"No way! You built DD? Designated Driver apps?"

Mina shyly admits, "Yeah, that one."

Chaeyoung stops and looks at her.